Q 01/05

What working title did Arthur Miller give his Salem play before settling on The Crucible?

A) The Witches of Salem

B) Those Familiar Spirits

C) The Devil in Massachusetts

D) A Pointy Reckoning

Answer · why

B) Those Familiar Spirits

Those Familiar Spirits was the working title; in Act One, Hale arrives promising that his volumes will expose 'all your familiar spirits—your incubi a...

Q 02/05

Miller made Abigail Williams seventeen to make her affair with Proctor plausible; how old was the real girl in 1692?

A) About fourteen

B) About nineteen

C) About twelve

D) About twenty-one

Answer · why

C) About twelve

About twelve was the real girl's age, and there is no evidence that she and John Proctor ever met before the trials began.

Q 03/05

The play introduces John Proctor as a farmer in his middle thirties; roughly how old was the real Proctor when hanged?

A) About sixty

B) About forty

C) About fifty

D) About seventy

Answer · why

A) About sixty

About sixty is the real figure: the Massachusetts landowner, born in 1631, was hanged on 19 August 1692, so Miller's younger Proctor is a deliberate r...

Q 04/05

In Act Four, why does Elizabeth say Giles Corey stood mute under the stones instead of answering his indictment?

A) To protect his wife Martha

B) So his sons keep the farm

C) Because illiterate men could not plead

D) To shame the judges into relenting

Answer · why

B) So his sons keep the farm

So his sons keep the farm: a man who never pleaded could not be condemned and his property auctioned, and Elizabeth reports his only words were 'More ...

Q 05/05

Which honour did The Crucible take in 1953, at the ceremony that also crowned the musical Wonderful Town?

A) Obie Award for Best Play

B) Drama Critics' Circle Award

C) Tony Award for Best Play

D) Theatre World Award

Answer · why

C) Tony Award for Best Play

Tony Award for Best Play went to The Crucible on 29 March 1953 at the Waldorf-Astoria, where its Elizabeth Proctor also took the featured-actress priz...